


Caught

by silkmoth



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: First Time, Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-10
Updated: 2011-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-14 15:32:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/150783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silkmoth/pseuds/silkmoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s no fun to wake up and hear yelling. Lots of yelling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught

**Caught**

  
The first words Merlin managed to hear through a haze of pain and the sickly feeling of dizziness were shouted by someone standing nearby.

“If he ever manages to wake up again, I will kill him myself!”

Arthur? Was that…? Merlin tried to think about what happened and where he was, but it was difficult to get one thought straight. Everything tumbled around in his brain, the only thing he could remember was a sudden feeling of danger “ _Arthur_!” and the feeling of doing something important and at the same time incredibly stupid. Remembering the words he just heard he decided to stay unconscious. That wasn’t easy because the arse kept yelling.

“Did you know that, Gaius? Did you know Merlin is… that he is… I can’t even say it!”

Well, then he should just shut up. Merlin didn’t want to hear it anyway. Oh God. That was so not good. Things were coming back to him rapidly now. They had been on a hunt. Just the two of them. Monster. Really big monster with really big claws and a really long tail. Said big tail had hit him right in the chest and sent him flying while those big claws had grasped Arthur and before Merlin had hit a tree? a wall? something hard he had… he had… Oh God. He had cast a spell. A successful spell because Arthur was obviously very much alive. And he had cast that spell right in front of Arthur, who kept on screeching like a banshee.

“Now did you? _Did you_?”

Yeah, sure, Merlin thought. As if Gaius would be saying “Yes, sire, I’ve known.” And then Gaius could just go out and lay his head on the block and let himself be beheaded.

“Yes, sire, I’ve known.”

 _Oh God_. Just as Merlin decided _now_ would be the time to wake up, declare Gaius mentally unstable and stumble out to his execution on his own feet, the door of the laboratory banged open.

“Gaius, what is… Arthur! Would you tell me what is going on here? The guards just reported there was a fire in the woods and you were seen rushing to the physician. Explain this riot, would you?”

UTHER. Merlin wondered if there was a way, any way, even one using magic, to behead himself on the spot. Things would be much easier for him afterwards.

Silence.

Huh. Maybe it worked and he _had_ beheaded himself already.

“Father…”

Dammit.

“Father, er… there was some kind of beast, like a giant saurian and it attacked me out of nowhere and Merlin…”

Great. His mother had been right after all. Will had been right. Gaius had been right – and Gaius would be dead pretty soon just like Will. Merlin wondered if Uther would throw some torture in for him, the warlock, for being the _manservant_ of his son for months.

“… well, Merlin managed to knock himself out against a tree while I killed the thing. I had to burn it afterwards, because it stank awfully.”

The earth beneath Merlin began to sway slightly. Arthur hadn’t ratted him out. He had no idea why not, but he was grateful. Deeply grateful. And a little giddy which he tried to stop immediately. Being giddy was _never_ a good idea for him.

“Well done, son. I’ll see you at dinner.”

And with that Uther left the room. Typical. All was right again in his world, after all. Son defeated monster, manservant could be dying but who cares.

“Merlin, you can open your eyes now, I know you’re awake!”

Merlin couldn’t hear Arthur, he was unconscious. And he would remain unconscious for days. Maybe even weeks.

“Merlin, look at me!” This was accompanied by some heavy poking. “Look at me, you treacherous bastard!”

That did it. Merlin didn’t only open his eyes, he also sat up and immediately regretted both. It was very bright in the laboratory; his head started to hurt real bad and Arthur’s blurred face was red. Very red. But all that didn’t stop his tongue.

“Treacherous? Treacherous? You asshole! I saved your arse today, and that wasn’t the first time, you moron! I lost count of how many times your royal ass needed saving and - OW! Bloody hell, are you insane?”

That didn’t stop the second slap coming from Arthur’s hand and Merlin didn’t know if the slaps were that hard, if he was that unsteady or if Arthur really should have taken his heavy gloves off – whatever it was, he was losing consciousness, real fast. The last thing he noticed was Arthur’s face which lost a lot of its redness and Arthur saying “Come on, Merlin, that wasn’t…”

Darkness.

***

There was blessed silence, and a blessed coolness against his forehead. Merlin sighed happily. He was lying in his bed, he could tell because of that well known lump under his right kidney. Obviously Gaius had managed to throw everyone out and was now tending to him. He really liked Gaius. Gaius was nice and wise –well, at least until today- and the father he never had. In the last months Merlin had often hoped that his mother or Gaius himself would declare that Gaius really was his father, but that didn’t happen. By now, Merlin had stopped hoping for it. But that didn’t stop his deep gratitude for the man, especially today when he behaved like a protective father and had removed the prat from his room and…

“Are you awake yet?”

Well, that was to be expected. Merlin already knew that the Fates hated him. Or maybe they really liked him and loved to play with him for the rest of his very short life. He slowly opened his eyes and stared at the man at his side. The prat himself was sitting on the wobbly chair right next to his bed and watched him with an unreadable expression on his face. The strange look in Arthur’s eyes made Merlin immediately deeply uncomfortable. Usually he knew every facial expression Arthur could come up with – his hilarious ‘you-will-do-as-I-tell -you’ look, his ‘you-are-an-idiot-and-why-do-I-even-t

alk-to-you’ scowl. Merlin knew how Arthur looked when he was hurt, when he was really angry, when he was pretending to be angry, when he was in a teasing mood, when he was sad, when he… Merlin stopped himself. All right, he obviously memorized lots of Arthur’s expressions. But he didn’t know that one. It was not the ‘I’m-gonna-kill-you’ death glare either, because Merlin had seen that look, just not directed at him.

“What are you doing here?” he grated. Gods, even his throat was hurting.

“Right now I’m wiping your delicate brow since you fainted like a girl, Merlin.”

Merlin took a deep, deep breath because the next second he would tell Arthur exactly how he had not fainted like a girl but had been knocked out by a certain bully who… he started coughing, which made the ache in his head _explode_ , and his stomach, which hadn’t been all that happy before, suddenly gave up the ghost. Merlin threw up. On Arthur. There. Now he felt better.

Full of serenity, he watched Arthur standing up and moving very quickly towards the tub –there was a tub in his room?- and listened to the squeaky sounds Arthur made. Considering the fact that he had oatmeal and three apples for breakfast, he could understand Arthur’s haste.

“Arthur?”

“What?”

“Who brought the tub in?”

Arthur sighed. “Gaius and I. He thought you might get a fever and we would need it to cool you down. I should have brought a bucket.”

“Yes, that would have been… what are you doing?”

“I’m going to take my pants off. I don’t know what you’ve eaten, but it smells – disgusting. If I don’t get that stuff away from me quickly, I will throw up myself,” said Arthur and dropped his pants.

Merlin swallowed. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t ever seen Arthur in all his naked glory. But that had always been in Arthur’s room. Merlin had no idea why it was different here in his room, but it was. And Arthur wasn’t even completely naked, he just. Dropped. His. Pants.

“Now, would you please help me out?”

“Help you out?”

“Is there an echo in here? Pants, Merlin, I need some pants. Where do you have them?” Arthur asked and marched over to one of the old armoires on the left side. Before Merlin could even utter one word, Arthur opened it and froze. Great.

“My pants are over there,” Merlin said and pointed, uselessly because Arthur wasn’t looking, to his commode on the right side. “Arthur?”

Arthur reached into the armoire and took something out. Merlin couldn’t see what it was, but he could guess. For one time in history, he actually had hid The Book in his closet. Served him right.

The Book already flipped open in his hands, Arthur turned. Merlin was completely certain that there would be a really stupid question coming. He wasn’t disappointed.

“What is this?” Arthur asked, while quite a few crow feathers tumbled slowly down from The Book to the floor.

Arthur looked ridiculous. Dressed only in his somewhat splattered tunic, mouth still open, two feathers clinging to the golden hairs on his bare legs… right.

“It’s a cookery book.”

“ _Merlin_!”

“What?”

“This is serious!”

“Is it really? What do you want me to say? I can’t believe you’re stupid enough to not see what that is. It’s a book about magic. All those runes should clue you in. Oh, and since we’re already at it…” Merlin stood up, still a little shaky, and wobbled over to the loose floorboard and took out the sorcerer’s staff. Turning around, he threw it at Arthur who still had the book in his hands. Arthur just barely managed to close the book before he caught the staff.

“What…?”

“Yeah, I know, what is that? That is the magic staff of Sophia’s father, who almost killed you. Or to be precise it was Sophia…”

“Sophia? I thought we were just trying to elope and you knocked me out and…”

“No, I didn’t. They almost drowned you, and I had to kill them both and draw you out of the lake and…”

Merlin stopped, sat down on the bed again and hugged himself. He still could barely think about that awful day. All that diving and searching for Arthur, almost sure he would only find a dead body; almost sure he had failed, utterly failed. He shivered.

“So you didn’t manage to knock me out?”

Gods.

“All right, let’s concentrate on the important things here. I didn’t knock you out. A girl knocked you out, Arthur. Do you feel better now?”

Merlin let himself fall back on the bed and closed his eyes. He just wanted everything to be over. Not only did he feel awful again, he didn’t want to talk about all this. Why in Heaven’s name had he ever thought it would be glorious to tell Arthur the truth? It felt horrible.

Merlin heard Arthur bang around a bit, probably putting the book and staff somewhere. Then the steps came closer and the familiar creaking of the chair told him Arthur had sat down again. Merlin refused to open his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

There it was. The most stupid question anyone had ever asked in the whole kingdom. In whole Albion. Moron. Merlin sighed, sat up and looked at the prince.

“Yeah, I wonder why, too. When should I have told you, Arthur? When? While we were burning Will’s body and you told me how dangerous magic is? While my friend was still in the flames? Or should I have told you after you killed the unicorn? As you told me that no true word will ever come out of a sorcerer’s mouth? Oh no, wait, I guess the most perfect moment would have been when your father ordered Gwen’s father killed along with a bunch of other people who all committed the terrible crime to have been _seen_ with a sorcerer!” Merlin yelled the last sentences, agitated and furious about all that _wrongness_ he had to watch over the last year.

Arthur just looked at him, again with that weird expression in his blue eyes. It was close to sadness, close to hurt, but… Merlin dropped his head into his hands. He felt like he had kicked a puppy, and he was very sure he didn’t do any kicking. It was him who have been kicked and pushed all the time, and here he sat, feeling awful for telling the truth. He knew exactly how proud Arthur was and how much poison, handed down from his father, he had had to swallow over the years. He also knew that the true miracle was that he was still sitting here on his bed, and not already down in the dungeons, waiting for his execution. Merlin lifted his head.

“Why didn’t you tell your father about me?”

Arthur just kept looking at him, saying nothing. The silence stretched until Merlin started to grind his teeth.

“Well?”

Arthur flushed. “I don’t know.”

That was a lie, plain and simple. Merlin sighed again, suddenly sad.

“So, now I’m telling the truth and you start to lie to me?”

“Everybody lies, Merlin,” Arthur said quietly. “My whole life, everybody lied to me. My father, Morgana, the servants, even my knights. Everyone lied because they wanted something from me. I thought – I thought you were the one who…” Arthur stopped.

Merlin leaned forward, so close their foreheads were almost touching. His heart hurt like it had never before and his throat was closing up. “But I am, Arthur,” he whispered, “I am. Can’t you see that?”

“I know. I know. I still know.” So quietly, Merlin could barely hear Arthur’s words. “That is why I would never have…” And then Arthur closed the distance between them and kissed him, on the mouth.

For a moment everything, even time, stood still. Then Merlin moved. THIS. This was what he was meant to do. Forget the dragon. Forget destiny. This. Was. It.

Merlin’s hands were already buried in Arthur’s ridiculous blond hair; his lips clung to Arthur’s. While he was trying to draw the prince’s glorious _half-naked_ body on the bed and on top of himself, his tongue made itself quite comfortable in Arthur’s mouth. And that was when things began to go wrong.

First he didn’t even notice the other man’s struggle, he just thought that Arthur would probably want to give him some weird hand signals again, as if Arthur thought that Merlin would be able to understand them now … But suddenly, Merlin noticed that Arthur was trying desperately to draw back. Heart already sinking, he abruptly released him.

In his haste to get away from Merlin, Arthur almost fell back into the chair, and that was the end of said chair. A stunned look in his face, Arthur sat in the middle of splintered wood and stared at Merlin for a minute. Then he buried his face in his hands and started to shake.

Oh God. This was probably the worst moment in Merlin’s life. True, Arthur had kissed him, but apparently that was just another weird royal thing, one of those stupid rules Merlin never even wanted to understand. It probably meant _I forgive you_ or _I don’t want to talk about this anymore_ , or just _I need pants_. Maybe he just got promoted and he didn’t notice it. This was a nightmare.

“Arthur, please, I’m so sorry. Gods, I didn’t know – I mean, I didn’t want to molest…” Merlin shut his mouth so quickly he almost bit his tongue. Because on the floor, Arthur suddenly dropped his hands, fell back on his back and began to howl with laughter.

 _The arse was laughing.  
_  
Merlin stood up, his magic crackling furiously all around him.

“What’s so funny, you ass?”

Arthur looked up at him, almost delirious and laughed even harder. “Sorry, Merlin, I’m sorry,” he managed to get out between fits of laughter. “It’s just… it was just so dis… disgusting…”

Disgusting?

Fine. Merlin wouldn’t even want to waste some of his magic on Arthur. He would just kick this bastard in the balls, then he would go down in that dammed cave and tell the dragon it could go and fuck itself, and then he would leave this fucked up castle.

Destiny. Two sides of a coin. What rubbish.

Merlin just aimed his first kick at the prince’s oh so vulnerable groin, when Arthur turned around real fast, grabbed Merlin’s right calf and pulled. Since his left leg was already in the air, Merlin went down on top of Arthur like a sack of potatoes. That didn’t stop him from kicking, though, and yelling.

“Let go of me, you bastard!”

The ass was still laughing. “Merlin, stop! Please, you… you don’t understand...”

“Oh, I understand, believe me. I get it. I’m disgust…ugh!”

Arthur had turned around again, pinning Merlin’s arms and legs quite successfully. It made Merlin’s stomach flutter in the most curious way. Merlin hated it. He really did.

“Merlin, listen to me!”

“Let go of me, you slimy…”

“Merlin, _please_!”

“WHAT?”

“I didn’t mean you are disgusting. It’s just that,” Arthur dropped his head for a moment and made a noise which sounded suspiciously like a giggle, “it’s just that you… you… you just puked.”

Oh God. Eww. Merlin felt himself flush all over. That was disgusting.

After some really embarrassing seconds, Arthur let go of him, stood up and held his right hand out. “Come on.” Merlin took the prince’s hand and somehow got his feet under him. He couldn’t even bear to look at Arthur.

“Merlin?”

He felt Arthur’s hands on his face. He slowly raised his head and looked at the prince. Arthur was smiling.

“Maybe you could just brush your teeth first?”

“I can do that. I can definitely do that. Sire.”

Arthur stood there, still smiling, looking at him with a whole new expression on his face. Merlin had never seen this expression before, but he knew exactly what it meant.

The End.


End file.
